Hélène Ségara was born on 26 February 1971 on her grandfather's farm in Six-Fours-les-Plages. Her father is of Italian descent and mother is Armenian. She listed the divorce of her parents when she was eight and the death of her grandfather when she was 16 as defining moments of her childhood.[1] As she wanted to become a singer, she left school and family at the age of 14.

Her many jobs whilst a teenager included performing in the piano bars of the French Riviera. At 18, she gave birth to Raphael, her first son. Drawing on many musical influences she was a prolific songwriter during this period, and her repertoire grew to over a thousand songs in seven languages.[2] In 1993, her first single, "Loin", was released, but failed to achieve success.

In 1996, accompanied by her young son, she moved to Paris, where she met Christian Loigerot, who became one of her composers. She also met the famous producer Orlando, Dalida's brother, who gave new impetus to her career. Although impressed by the experience and professionalism of this mentor, she was still under contract with her first producer.

However, her career was jeopardized after being diagnosed with a cyst on her vocal cords although she continued to perform. During a show in Canada, she lost her voice. Her producer then resold her contract to Orlando, while a laser operation was carried out to treat her vocal cords.

After her recovery, she recorded her second album, Au Nom d'une femme in 2000 which topped the charts in France. Five singles were released from the album. Ségara then began a concert tour that lasted about two years. A video recording of the concert she gave at the Olympia in Paris on this occasion was released. According to a poll made by the IFOP, Segara was the French people's favourite French singer at the time.

In March 2003, she released a third album, Humaine, including "On n'oublie rien, on vit avec", a duet with Laura Pausini and "L'Amour est un soleil", composed by Romano Musumarra. The album sold around 700,000 copies. She began another tour in late 2003 but was forced to stop her performances because of a difficult pregnancy.

In August 2003, Ségara married Mathieu Lecat (son of journalist Didier Lecat) in Ajaccio, with whom she had two further children: Matteo (born in May 2003) and Maïa (October 2004).

Her fourth studio album, Quand l'éternité ... came out in 2006. The first single from this album, "Méfie-toi de moi", was followed by "Rien n'est comme avant". This album has a different style from previous ones, with more pronounced rock influences, with lyrics largely written by the singer, discussing issues such as absence, death and hope. The album eventually achieved gold status three months after its release for more than 200,000 copies sold. In early 2007, she began a new concert tour in France, including the Palais des Sports in Paris.

In 2007, having finished the first part of her tour, two other songs from the album received radio play, despite not being released as singles: "Tu ne seras jamais libre" and "Father". In late 2007, several editions came out: a box set with of 3 CDs (Les 50 plus belles chansons d'Hélène Segara), two boxes consisting of two CDs with a new cover (Cœur de verre + Au Nom d'une femme, Humaine + Quand l'éternité...) and a CD 'Prestige' with 15 tracks. In February 2008, she released "La Moitié de nous", a duet with Bruno Pelletier, with a percentage of profits given to the charity Rêves.[3] The tour "Quand l'éternité..." ran until summer 2008, in France and abroad.

In 1998, Ségara performed with Garou a duet for the album Ensemble contre le sida (Eng: Together Against AIDS). The song is a cover version of "L'amour existe encore", composed by Luc Plamondon and Richard Cocciante for Celine Dion.

She is a supporter of the charities Rêves, Les Restos du Cœur, Les Enfants de la Terre et e-enfance.

She sang on the album Le Cœur des femmes in aid of the Association Laurette Fugain, as well as charity programs on France 3.

She is also godmother of the charity Suisse, Espace Adoption, which supports adoptive families and adopted children.

Hélène Ségara has been ambassador of the association Rêves since 1998.